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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727658">daffodils in winter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/piecesofgold/pseuds/piecesofgold'>piecesofgold</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Titans (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amnesia, Gen, Past Character Death, Post-Season/Series 02, dawn isn’t ~in this~ but the implication is There</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:41:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27727658</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/piecesofgold/pseuds/piecesofgold</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She wakes up screaming.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dawn Granger/Donna Troy, Dick Grayson &amp; Donna Troy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>daffodils in winter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i haven’t watched or written titans in over a year and yet here we are !!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She remembers light, and pain, then nothing at all.</p><hr/><p>She wakes up screaming.</p><p>There is a girl - a <em> child </em>- knelt beside her, frantic and relieved and so, so small.</p><p>“I didn’t think that would work,” the girl says, blue eyes huge, her hands reaching.</p><p>Skin alight, she shrinks away. “Who are you?” She demands. “Where am I?”</p><p>The girl's face falls.</p><hr/><p>“Your name is Donna Troy,” the woman says, in a voice as steady as her hand.</p><p>“Donna,” she repeats, hoping the wall in her brain cracks and floods it with memories.</p><p>It doesn’t.</p><p>“I died, didn’t I?” She asks slowly. Her body is burned and blackened and bruised - it’s the most obvious conclusion.</p><p>The woman nods. “Do you remember that?”</p><p>
  <em> Light. Pain. Nothing. </em>
</p><p>She shakes her head.</p><p>“Do you know who I am?”</p><p>Another shake, and the woman’s face falls in a similar way the girls had.</p><p>“I am Diana,” she says carefully, but this tone is heavy with grief.</p><p>Discomfort sets in her - <em> Donna</em>, her name is Donna - chest, and she wonders how important Diana was to her.</p><hr/><p>On the fourth day, Diana gives her a rope.</p><p>It’s heavy and thick and gold, and for a moment there is a spark in the Nothing of Donna’s mind.</p><p>“This belongs to you,” Diana says. Donna nods, because even if she doesn’t know her own name, she knows that.</p><p>Diana is - the only word she can think of is <em> otherworldly</em>. Rachel - the girl - is as well, in a much darker sense.</p><p>Donna examines the map of scars and muscles across her own skin, the rapidness of her recovery, and begins to suspect she is, too.</p><p>Rachel comes to sit with her for a few hours every day, but Donna knows how much it upsets her. The girl seems to think she’s done something wrong, guilt making her avoid Donna’s eyes.</p><p>“Diana says she’s going to tell Dick tomorrow,” Rachel says one evening, picking at her food.</p><p>Donna frowns. “Who is…” she trails off.</p><p>Rachel immediately looks guilty. “Your friend. Your best friend.” She pauses. “Dick Grayson.”</p><p>Donna blinks. No image is conjured up.</p><hr/><p>A stranger with sad brown eyes and a mouth stuck in a permanent frown arrives the next evening.</p><p>An involuntary part of Donna relaxes the moment she sees him - something beyond instinct that makes her immediately comfortable around him.</p><p>“Donna,” Dick Grayson says. “Do you know me?”</p><p>And she wants to say <em> yes, I know you </em> so badly, wants one goddamn thing from the blanket of Nothing she’s trapped in. But she can’t, because she doesn’t.</p><p>Dick Grayson stays for three days, tells her stories and shows her photos until Donna has a headache from all the names and faces spinning around.</p><p>He leaves a camera behind - her camera, apparently.</p><p>
  <em> Dick. Kory. Dawn. Hank. Rachel. Gar. Jason. Conner. </em>
</p><p>Donna stares at them for hours, as if their frozen faces can tell her anything.</p><hr/><p>
  <em> There is a house on fire and her parents are dead. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Her mother smooths gauze over her broken skin and gently tells her she has nothing to prove. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> She breaks her best friend's wrist the first time she meets him. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> A woman with platinum hair laughs, and she falls in love. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> She packs a red suit in a wardrobe and let’s it gather dust. </em>
</p><p>
  <em> A tower falls, and she dies saving a dove. </em>
</p><hr/><p>They stir underneath the surface, images beneath a frozen lake.</p><p>Dick calls every day, always first for her and then Rachel. He talks about anything and everything, undeterred by her unsure silence.</p><p>(Donna listens to his voice and thinks <em> robin </em> and <em> brother </em> and <em> absence. </em> She thinks <em> I will give my life for you</em>.)</p><p>“How is -“ Donna suddenly says one day, breaking his usual stream. “The one with - sorry, I mean...Dawn?”</p><p>She hears Dick’s surprised intake of breath. “You remember Dawn?”</p><p>(Dawn is - <em> light </em> and <em> poise </em> and <em> locked up anger </em> with <em> afternoon tea at five o’clock. </em> Sharp teeth biting Donna’s lip and laughter into her neck.)</p><p>Donna swallows. “Not really,” she lies, able to see the disappointed slope of Dick’s shoulders.</p><p>They are imprints coming out of the Nothing - some more than others.</p><hr/><p>Donna Troy knows three things.</p><p>One - she knows her parents are dead. She knows <em> she </em>was dead, until Rachel brought her back.</p><p>Two - she knows she’s not entirely human, and neither are the people around her. Diana has not aged from any of the photos Donna has seen her in. Rachel’s eyes turn black and resurrected her. She knows she was part of a - <em> team </em>of sorts with Rachel and Dick - and Dawn.</p><p>Three - Diana is the closest thing she has to a mother. Dick Grayson is her best friend. Dawn Granger might have been the love of her life, once. Those imprints are the strongest, but only one fills her with a bottomless pit of upset.</p><p>She’s forgotten most things. She hasn’t forgotten love.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sorry this is pretty short.</p><p>comments and kudos appreciated as always 🌞</p></blockquote></div></div>
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